Overview

The Second World War. A terrifying grown-up nightmare in which children can be killed but have no right to fight back. Then fourteen-year-old Chas McGill stumbles on his biggest German souvenir yet. A machine gun. Brilliantly outwitting police, parents and the army, Chas and his friends steal the gun. Then they build it a fortress. They have become the machine gunners. But with the gun comes danger.

Full Product Details

Author:   Robert Westall
Publisher:   Pearson Education Limited
Imprint:   Heinemann
Edition:   1st New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 12.40cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 18.80cm
Weight:   0.240kg
ISBN:  

9780435124571

ISBN 10:   0435124579
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   02 May 1996
Recommended Age:   From 12 years
Audience:   Primary & secondary/elementary & high school ,  Educational: Primary & Secondary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Reviews

Air raids and night bombing have turned the schoolchildren in the north-of-England town of Garmouth into avid collectors of war souvenirs, but one boy goes a step farther when he gets his hands on a real working machine gun salvaged from a downed German plane. The boy, Chas McGill, soon becomes the leader of a band of children determined to play war in earnest - digging a bunker in the garden of a bombed-out house, firing their gun wildly during a night raid, and even taking their own German prisoner. Keeping their operation secret leads to the brutal thrashing of an inquisitive bully and a lot of lying to worried police and parents. Then; with the whole town spooked by rumors of a German invasion, the children mistake a group of Free Polish soldiers for Nazis and accidentally shoot their by now much loved prisoner in the ensuing panic. The children, alternately tough as nails and audaciously funny, are delightfully individualized Characters and Westall's writing is smashing throughout. Other adults might not be ready to share Mr. McGill's not so grudging admiration of his son's guts, but Westall leaves one free to draw a grimmer moral from the children's ingenious imitation of a grownup game. Seat-of-the-pants suspense with a premise that recalls Lord of the Flies and might provoke the same kind of debate. (Kirkus Reviews)

A group of teenage boys (and one tomboy girl) in Tyneside during World War II find a crashed Heinkel bomber in a wood. They capture its pilot, make him show them how to fire its machine gun, then set up their own dugout and help to win the war. This richly humorous, rather violent adventure story won the Carnegie Medal in 1975. (11 yrs +) (Kirkus UK)

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